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Do co-authored papers qualify?

Key answer

Yes. USCIS does not require sole or first authorship, and strong co-authors can even strengthen the case - their standing is highlighted in the article description. What matters is showing the scholarly nature of the piece (who it is written for and why) and your real contribution to the work.
Check a journal or outlet for the petition

Community answers

The answers below are translated from the original Russian - the language of the community chats.

  • Co-authorship is not a problem. I had a paper with 150 co-authors, and it is the strongest paper: half of the academic world in my field contributed to this research.

  • If there are co-authors, their prominence can be easily attributed to you in the article description - show what company you worked with to achieve the results.

  • It is important that the article is scholarly: show who the target audience is and why. You can reference the journal's positioning, section, and the text of the article itself.

  • Yes, co-authored articles are acceptable. Individual authorship is not mandatory. It is useful to ensure that the number of co-authors is not excessive (3-5 is normal, while 10-20 dilutes your contribution), and to draw the officer's attention to your role in the cover letter.

The answers are anonymized community experience from the public chats, not legal advice. Officers may decide similar cases differently.

Why "Scholarly authorship" gets refused

Accepted in 44% of challenged petitions (86 of 196); not an approval rate.

The venue is not accepted as professional, trade or major media - where it was published is judged separately from the article itself.

All refusal grounds and the sample

Sources

All questions on: Articles and citations

Related on this site

Similar questions

A reference page built from community experience, not legal advice. Requirements and practice change - verify on uscis.gov.

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